Castlevania, American (Animated) tv series (2017)

Some of you that have been following my blog for a while, know that in the distant past I used to be a very fanatical gamer. I played computergames pretty much non stop, and I did so with a lot of enthusiasm. All of that changed after a particularly nasty session of online Call of Duty. I will spare you the details, but let us just say that it involved a lot of cursing and broken controllers. Not one of my finest moments. After that night, I just stopped gaming altogether and went back to older hobbies including boardgames. The world of computergames is still a part of me however, and even though I haven’t played in ages, I still enjoy reading news and watching videos about new games that will hit the shelves. There are certain gameseries that are legendary and very well known by most people. A few examples are Doom, Resident Evil, Super Mario Brothers and Castlevania. Interestingly enough, for this last named series a four part animated show was released a few months back on Netflix.

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The story of this animated series starts off in the year 1455 in Wallachia. A young woman doctor called Lisa is searching for the infamous Vlad Dracula Tepes, in order to enlist his help in acquiring scientific knowledge. Eventually the two meet up, and Dracula is pleasantly surprised by her great courage. He agrees to help her, and in turn Lisa tries to make him reconnect with his human self. Eventually they fall in love and are married. Twenty years later though, disaster strikes and Lisa is burned at the stake for witchcraft by an insane bishop of the holy church. Dracula is ofcourse furious and heartbroken, and he warns the people of Wallachia that they have exactly one year to make their peace. After that he will wipe out every single human being by his own hands. Dracula begins raising an army of terrible creatures to carry out his revenge. The only hope for the human race seems to lie in the hands of Trevor Belmont. He is the last remaining member of the disgraced noble Belmont family, who were experts in fighting monsters. However Trevor will first have to find back his faith in himself and decide if humanity is even worth saving…..

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I have always found the story of Dracula incredibly fascinating. Throughout the years there have been numerous adaptations of this classic tale in the form of movies and even tv series. The Castlevania gameseries has been around for quite a while and is very popular. I can’t say that I am very familiar with, having played only two or three installments of it, but I do know that it’s a gameseries with a pretty rich history. This animated show was a pleasant surprise. It drew me in right from the openingscene and did not let up for one second. The animation style is very good, but it’s also very graphic. This is certainly a series intended for a mature audience, as there are some incredibly gory scenes in it, especially in the first episode. The show is full of action and these scenes are brought to life by the animation in a great way, which certainly adds to the overall appeal of this series.

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Another thing that is worth mentioning is the voice acting which is really topnotch. Richard Armitage brings to life the character of Trevor Belmont, and he seems to have a lot of fun in doing so. Trevor is a sometimes pretty sarcastic character, and some of the comedy relief in the show, that was a welcome reprieve from the pretty dark story, was provided by him. But the rest of the voice acting cast also did a fine job and included the likes of James Callis and Tony Amendola. These last two names should be familiar to most science fiction fans. Callis is of course best known for his role as doctor Gaius Baltar from the new Battlestar Galactica series, and Tony appeared in Stargate Sg-1 as master Bra’tac. It’s always important in animated series to have voices that act as if you are watching a live action tv show, and the cast for Castlevania certainly managed to accomplish that.

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The downside to Castlevania is that it’s only four episodes. This almost feels like you are watching a pilot and that it serves as the set up for the story that is yet to come. Luckily I can out your minds at ease and tell you that the series will indeed continue with 8 more episodes. Which in my opinion is very good news. I really enjoyed this first taste of what might develop into a pretty good animated show, if it continues along this path. If you like horror and vampire stories, or if you are a fan of the video game series, I highly recommend that you check this series out. It doesn’t take up a lot of time, as it is only four episodes of around 22 minutes each, but it’s time that is very well spent. I’m really looking forward to what the second season will bring, and I think it can only become even better than this first appetizer.

43 thoughts on “Castlevania, American (Animated) tv series (2017)”

Ooh this looks awesome! I’ll definitely be checking it out 🙂 I’ve always wanted to play Castlevania but it was another one of those games that made me motion sick >_> but now I can finally know the story through this series ^O^!

I’m with you. This was really fun and drew me right in but then it ended. It definitely felt like an introduction or a pilot rather than anything that could be alled a series. Looking forward to more of this coming and wish they had just made a proper series in the first place.

Well, as I said luckily I found this comment in the spamfilter. But yes it almost seems as if they were trying to find out if there is a market for this before they went on full speed ahead. The one advantage though was the fact that you can finish it rather quickly. I hope that the next season will come at us soon, as I really enjoyed this. I only think it can get better from here. Thanks for your comment 😀

Yeah, I think this first part if you can call it that, was a kind of test run to see if people might enjoy this. And they apparently did, seeing as a second season is underway. It’s also one of the reasons I decided to watch it. Lately most of the series I watch have a lot of episodes and take a while to get through, but this is a pretty quick watch, which is also nice for a change. Hope you will enjoy it.
As for the Expanse season 2, it’s awesome so far, really enjoying it 😀

True enough, it’s sometimes just fun to watch a short series, seeing as I always have way too little time on my hands pretty much every week lol 😊
As for the Expanse, could not agree with you more. It really is absolutely amazing 😀

I can tell you this right now: don’t get me started on Doom. Oh wait you did lol 😂 I am a MASSIVE Doom fan. I owned that game on PlayStation, xbox360 and even the gameboy. I bought the novels that were based on the series, and I even have a boardgame that was made for it. So to say that I am a Doom fan is erm, pretty much an understatement lol. I did like the new Doom (Doom 3), but everything that came after that one, I haven’t played.
And yes some games really are everything a kid can want 😀

Yes, I have no idea what it was, but for some reason it works again. My comments did end up as spam, as two bloggers found them in their spamfilters. Really strange, but whatever it was, it seems to work again. Thanks for the help 😀

I’m not familiar with the game, but I did enjoy watching this. My only disappointment was that it was only 4 episodes. I’m so glad they’re coming out with a second season and they’re doubling the number of eps!☺️

I’m not very familiar with the game either but that’s what’s so great about this series, no knowledge is required for this one 😊 And I am really looking forward to the second season as well. So far I haven’t been able to find a releasedate for it yet, but I will keep my eyes open for it, that’s for sure 😊

It’s a pity that one bad experience drove you away from video games. Call of Duty is known for angering people, due to its toxic online community. Perhaps you will return to the hobby some day. I easily get stressed and have found that certain games help me unwind.

Great write up by the way. I too cannot wait for season two. Loved the funny captions.

Yeah: it was really weird how that happened. I turned off my console that night and never put in a game ever again. It was almost as if a switch was turned in my mind or something. Well I have never completely turned my back on gaming. I still enjoy reading about games, but playing computergames myself will probably not happen any time soon again.
Thanks for the kind words: I enjoyed this show a lot as well and hope it will return soon. Haven’t found info for that yet about a release date for season 2, but hopefully they won’t wait long 😀

Haha lol…you may always do some shameless self promotion 😊 I promise to check that out tomorrow. I just finished a 14 hour workday, so after finishing the answers to the last few comments, I’m heading off to bed 😊
But you are quite right, this series was brilliant and left me thirsting fir me more (Hmm….that makes me sound like a Vampire….not good😂). Hopefully the series will continue soon 😀

Seems to be a pretty common opinion, that being the series was a good start but needs more. I’m happy to have more of course but the wait between episodes is going to be killer and by then this show may not be as relevant as some are surely to forget about it.

Well, usually Netflix brings out every series in it’s entirety (esoecially the Netflix original series), so in all likelyhood the second season of 8 episodes will appear in one go. (Which ofcourse will lead to a massive bingewatch lol). But I think the series will defintely be worth the wait, as I really enjoyed this first taste of 4 episodes 😀).

That’s exactly my point. It is weird to have, what is basically a 12 episode series drop in two parts like this. Any time there is a time delay you risk people losing interest or forgetting about it because other stuff comes out.

I enjoyed it too, and will likely watch the next 8 episodes when they release, but my preference would have been to have them all at once. That’s all I meant.

I agree with you on that. It’s almost as if you are watching movie, and you only show the first hour, and have the 2nd hour appear one year later lol 😂 I have no idea why they did it like this either. Must have something to do with budget or stuff like that.
Let’s hope it comes out soon. It would really be a shame for people to forget about this series as it really has the potential to develop into something very good 😊 We will,keep our fingers crossed 😀

I’m still to see this series 🙂 I sounds really good and like something I’d really enjoy. I just have to find the time to watch it. 🙂 As long as they haven’t mess about with Dracula too much, I should enjoy it.

Oh glob, I can really empathise with your Call of Duty frustration. My best friend and I, uses to play Call of Duty together, all the time. Until we had the most BS game known to mankind. There was an extreme amount of dirty tactics and unfair play, even for Call of Duty standards. It ended in, his controller meeting the wall and some very colourful language from both of us. I refuse to play it now.

Well, the good thing about this series is that it is only 4 episodes of 22 minutes, so it doesn’t take a long time to watch this (but on the other hand, that is also one of the downsides, as it;s finished way too fast 😊).
Haha, yeah that is pretty much what happened to me as well with Call of Duty. It is truly a very annoying game, that ruined my love for gaming (then again I do have a lot more time for other stuff these days, so I guess I have to thank Call,of Duty for after all lol 😂😂).

I love Dracula and its adaptations myself and I’ve heard a lot about Castlevania but never played it… I’m willing to give the series a try, though, despite the gore and stuff. From what you described, it sounds awesome! Plus, Richard Armitage has the sexiest voice in all the realm so I can not skip this hahaha
Wonderful review, Michel! 🙂

Great review dear 😀😀 I love Castlevania so much! I was really annoyed when episode four was over. I thought there would be more episodes, at least 10 haha. I really want them to make more episodes, its so good! I love the horror and the gore x x

Excellent review. I’m glad to have kept this on my list on Netflix and even more excited to give it a shot now. It did look visually stunning, and the darker tone of it all is just so appealing too. Unfortunate that it isn’t longer though, it is something I had a couple of friends mention too. Maybe I’ll wait till the next batch of episodes comes out before binging through it all! 😀 Thanks for sharing.

Thank you again for the kind words😊
The good news is that if all goes well, the new season for this one will be out next year. I’m looking forward to it as well. It was actually the only complaint I had about this series, it was too short. Other than that it was excellent 😀

"Consider, can the universe be justifiably called infinite? Doubtful. It may not have a discernible end, but it had a beginning and its component parts definitely have a limited cosmological shelf-life. Splitting hairs or not, if history tells us anything, it's that scientists often make very poor poets. We're all just a ship of fools chasing phantoms, heedless of what really underwrites natural law." - Okabe Rintaro